Treasuring Simplicity: The Best Day Ever – A Day Out with Thomas the Train

This past weekend, we went to visit my family in Maryland for A Day Out with Thomas the Train. It was, hands down, Alex’s favorite day of his life.

The excursion was at the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum—this, in its self, would have been enough to make Alex’s day. Combine that with Thomas and he was on overload.

Here we are arriving at the museum. When you walk to the entrance, you pass all of these old train cars.

After we checked in, we got to see even more trains. I was astounded at the sheer size of these trains. The wheels alone were almost as tall as Andy (who is well over six feet tall).

The Roundhouse.

This building was stunning—with the light shining through the flags, it just seemed even more magical than it already it was.

Busza and Alex relaxing before the train ride.

We got to meet Sir Topham Hatt. Alex was terrified of him here—he wouldn’t even give him a high five. Later, when the line was huge, he wanted to meet him again (we passed the second time).

A steam engine—Alex was super impressed.

Of course, a red caboose.

And, finally, we get to see Thomas! Thomas’ mouth moved when he spoke—it was actually rather remarkable. What an amazing experience for a child (and, it was pretty awesome for us too!).

Alex was so excited to ride the train!

The conductor came to stamp Alex’s tickets. They did a bang up job on the authenticity.

And, we are off! He was waving to the people watching Thomas go by.

Alex and my dad got Junior Engineer certificates (signed by Sir Topham Hatt).

Unbeknownst to us, the museum is located in, and the train actually goes through, a rather rough section of Baltimore. The train had police escorts on motorcycles—we thought it was for the amusement of the children. Nope. It was because it is, supposedly, that bad of a neighborhood. We were all sort of glad we didn’t realize this at the time. Every review I read afterwards said that, although the surrounding neighborhood can be dangerous, the museum itself is completely safe—just use their parking and don’t park on the street.

With the train ride over, we went to get our photos taken with Thomas.

The masterminds behind the whole excursion!

The museum also had really impressive model trains (with Thomas and Percy)—Alex loved them!

Included in the ticket was access to an amusement park for toddlers. We started off on the carousel.

While Alex was riding the carousel, Busza was waiting in line at the mini train. Maybe his favorite ride of the day.

After the mini train ride, we went to get pretzels and visit the bubbles and chalk station.

Then, we discovered the tattoo tent! We went a little crazy and we all (except Andy) got in on the action.

They had playground equipment that was like a train (the slide was the front of the steam engine).

A close second for favorite ride of the carnival was the Happy Train. It had little seats on the wheels of the train and went around in circles. We rode this one (and the mini blue train) twice.